I dont think privies are illegal. Had one over forty years ago at my first house. I liked it. The problem with privies is that most people forgot that privies-users had in house comodes and slopjugs in the old days. So no one ran out where it was night or when they were sick. Instead they used the comode and cleaned them out and walked it to the privie in the am.
A clean airy privy that is well limed and moved annually is a goood think. I think peple used to plant daylilies over the old privy site which gave them the vulgar name of Sh**house Roses in some parts of the country.
I am a wealth of useless information.
Last time we where out there their only complaint is they have been moving that old s#$t house around so long they forgot what is virgin land and what is not.
I read elsewhere that people would plant honeysuckle around a privy to make it smell nice, or hollyhocks to help hide it.
After the great Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, the Cypress Structure of the Nimitz Freeway (I-80, East SF Bay, Oakland, CA) had to be demolished and rerouted. Along with the reconstruction plans there was an obligatory archaeological study of West Oakland and the houses that would be affected by the construction. This study included an in-depth look at material culture of California in the late 19th - early 20th century (Oakland was founded in 1852) and many, many artifacts were found where outhouses had been located, since they were used as trash heaps.
“I am a wealth of useless information.”
I found it interesting:)
My great grandmother planted pansies around her outhouse. When I was little I adored those large, lush beds of multicolored pansies. When you're 5 years old, you don't make the connection.
I know several people who have a hobby/business of digging up old filled-in privies looking for antique bottles. Some of those bottles are worth thousands to collectors. The theory is that nature has cleansed the nastiness out of the organic stuff in the hole. Most of the time, that is true.